The Florida Panthers shocked everyone yesterday when they dealt Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights and allowed Jon Marchessault to be selected. That’s left a hole in their forward group, one GM Dale Tallon might be shopping in free agency to fill. In a conference call with the media today including George Richards of the Miami Herald, Tallon said that the Panthers would be aggressive on July 1st and has the full support of ownership to spend on free agents.
If this was his plan all along, moving smith was integral. The Panthers now have around $20MM to spend under the cap, and more importantly the actual money to do so. While new deals are needed for both Alex Petrovic and Mark Pysyk (as well as Jaromir Jagr if the team brings him back) they should have enough to be big players on the open market.
The question then becomes if that’s the right way to go. Unrestricted free agency this season looks like one of the weakest groups in recent years, with 37-year olds (Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau) virtually leading the way. There are the trio of UFAs from Washington—T.J. Oshie, Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner—to consider, but each has their own drawbacks and should command hefty salaries on the open market.
The team could bring back Thomas Vanek, but he won’t replace the 45 goals and 88 points they lost on expansion day by himself. Sam Gagner could be a sneaky good option after a bounce-back year and could help the scoring both at 5-on-5 and on the powerplay. But that question still remains; is there anything worth being “aggressive” on? Fans disappointed with losing Smith and more importantly Marchessault will be frustrated to hear that the money might be put back into older players on July 1st, but perhaps there is something else up Tallon’s sleeve. For now, we’ll have to wait to see if he’s involved in any other trades over the next few days.
Perhaps he swings a deal with Sakic for Duchene or Landeskog.